SociologyExchange.co.uk Shared Resource

SociologyExchange.co.uk Shared Resource

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  Family and populationare closely linked – how? The study of populations and their characteristics is called demography. These characteristics include: • Size: is the population large or small, growing or declining? • Age structure: is the average age of the population rising or falling? The factors which most directly affect population size are? • . • . • . • Put these into the correct place on the diagram below: Factors causing population to rise Factors causing population to decline Population size Some Interesting facts Britain in 1801 had a population of 10.5 million. By 1901, this stood at 37 million. By 2007, the population of the UK had reached 61 million and it is estimated that by 2031 this will rise to 71 million!! BIRTHS KEY TERM: Birth rate = Q) What does this graph show us?
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  The Total Fertilityrate The factors determining the birth rate are: 1) The number of women who are of childbearing age (usually aged 15-44) 2) How fertile they are (how many children they have) The Total fertility rate (TFR) is the average number of children women will have during these fertile years The UK’s TFR has risen since 2001, but is still much lower than in the past (In 2001 TFR was at an all time low of 1.63 children per woman, it rose in 2006 to 1.84. However this is still much lower than the peak in 1964 of 2.95 children per woman) Q) What does this show? Reasons for the decline in birth rate On the diagram below try and thin of as many reasons as you can for the decline in birth rate Changes in the position of women Children have become an economic liability Child centredness Decline in infant mortality rate (IMR)
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  • In November 2006, the Liverpool Victoria Building Society estimated that the cost of raising a child from birth to the age of 21 now stands at £180000, and this cost has risen at a faster rate than property prices. • They estimate that the first year of their child’s life will set parents back nearly £8000, but the teenage years work out the cheapest, with those aged 12-18 costing their parents less than £7000. The most expensive, however, are University years, costing almost double this figure, following the introduction of tuition fees. • The average UK household will pay £16000 on their child’s food, £12000 on clothing, £11000 on holidays, £9000 on hobbies and toys and £5000 on pocket money. Effects of changes in Fertility Changes in the number of babies born affect several aspects of society: The Family The dependency ratio Public services and policies Effects of China’s one-child policy Read the following account of demographic changes in China and discuss the questions below with a group : Patterns of fertility in China have been significantly affected in the last thirty years by several factors. In 1979 China introduced a strict family planning policy that allows most couples to have only one child. Without this policy the Chinese government says that the country’s population would have continued to grow at an alarming rate. However, one of the results of this policy is the gradual emergence of a gender imbalance. In China as a whole, there are 120 males born for every 100 females. In some provinces, the number of males rises to160. The typical average ratio worldwide is about 105 boys for every 100 girls. There are now 18 million more men than there are women of marriageable age and the numbers are still growing. The main reason for this imbalance lies in Chinese cultural traditions. When a woman married, she lived with, and worked for, her husband’s family. Therefore, male children were more valued, as they carried on the family line, earned money for the family and looked after their parents in old age. This is still particularly true for rural areas – baby girls are not a good investment! At first there were incidents of baby girls being abandoned, or sometimes even killed. Today many female foetuses are aborted. Modern ultrasound techniques can identify the sex of a foetus and this can then
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  influence a decisionabout abortion. Although there are now laws to prevent doctors telling parents the sex of their unborn child, such sex-determined abortions are still occurring. The Chinese version of ‘Blind Date’ now attracts thousands of applicants from young men, who are willing to sing, dance and ridicule themselves for the chance of a date with a young woman. The status of older women as potential brides has improved and homosexuality has become more common. More worrying are the increase of kidnapping of women, sex trafficking from other Asian countries, and sexual crime by gangs of young men. In response, the government has introduced a propaganda campaign stressing the importance of girls. Now discuss each of the following questions: 1. Explain how a range of different social, cultural and political influences have brought about this situation in China. 2. Look back to the section on fertility and identify which factors identified there are relevant in this case also. 3. What policies do you think the Chinese government could use to ease the growing problem of gender imbalance? DEATHS In the UK, the overall number of deaths has stayed fairy stable since 1900, at around 600,000 per year. However there have been some important fluctuations. E.g. the two world wars (1914-18 and 1939-44) brought a rise in the number of deaths, whicle the flu epidemic of 1918 brought deaths to a record 690,000! However, the death rate has fallen since 1900. KEY TERM: Death rate = In 1900, the death rate stood at 19, whereas by 2007 it had almost halved, to 10. Reasons for the decline in death rate On the diagram below try and thin of as many reasons as you can for the decline in death rate Improved nutrition Medical Improvements Other social changes Public health measures and environmental Improvements
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  Life Expectancy KEY TERM: Life expectancy = As death rates have fallen, so life expectancy has increased. E.g. • Males born in England in 1900 could expect on average to live until they were 50 (57 for females) • Males born in England in 2003-5 can expect to live for 76.9 years (81.2 for females) Class, gender and regional differences • Women generally live longer than men – although the gap has narrowed due to changes in employment and lifestyle (such as women smoking) • Those living in the North and Scotland have a lower life expectancy than those in the South • Working-class men in unskilled or routine jobs are nearly 3 times more likely to die before they are 65 compares with men in managerial or professional jobs Q) Suggest 3 reasons why manual workers have a higher death rate than professionals 1) 2) 3) The aging population The average age of the UK population is rising. In 1971, it was 34.1. By 2007, it stood at 39.6. By 2031, it is expected to rise to 42.6. There are fewer young people and more ol people in the population. So what? What consequences might an aging population have? (Apart from scaring Miss G!) One-person pensioner households Public Services Policy changes The dependency ratio
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  MIGRATION KEY TERM: Immigration = Emigration= Net migration = Read through the section on Migration in your textbooks (on pages53-54) and make a list below of all the factors that might lead people to move from one country to another. Put them in the columns below as either ‘push factors’ (moving away from something) or ‘pull factors’ (moving to gain something), or both PUSH FACTORS PULL FACTORS BOTH Effect of migration on the dependency ratio Internal migration